Last updated at Tue, 25 Apr 2023 23:14:22 GMT
Rapid7 was honored at the Belfast Telegraph's annual IT Awards, Friday, taking home a pair of awards including the coveted “Best Place to Work in IT” in the large company category award, and the “Cyber Security Project of the Year” award, for groundbreaking machine learning research in application security. That research was conducted in collaboration with The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen's University Belfast.
The team also took home a Highly Commended recognition for Best Use of Cloud services at the event.
The ability to work on meaningful projects that positively impact customers, being supported by a range of professional development opportunities, a culture rooted in connection and collaboration, and the invitation to explore new ways of thinking all came together in the submission to help earn them the “Best Place to Work” title.
Belfast has been regarded as one of the UK's fastest growing technology hubs. There are now more than 300,000 people working in the technology sector of Northern Ireland, according to the Telegraph. For Rapid7, an impressive business environment and the work being done in IT Security at the local universities were significant factors in the decision to join the Belfast community in 2014. This move was in line with Rapid7's goal of creating exceptional career experiences for their people and expanding operations to address a growing global customer base. In 2021, Rapid7 relocated to their newest office space and announced the addition of more than 200 new roles to the region.
Rapid7's win for Cybersecurity Project of the Year focused on the cutting-edge area of machine learning in application security. Their research sought to reduce the high level of false positives generated by vulnerability scanners — a pain point that has become all too common in today's digital environment. Rapid7's multi-disciplinary Machine Learning (ML) team in Belfast was able to create a way to automatically prioritize real vulnerabilities and reduce false positive friction for customers. Their work has been peer-reviewed by industry experts, published in academic journals, and accepted for presentation at AISEC's November 2022 event — where it was recognized with their “Best Paper Award.” AISEC is the leading venue for ML cybersecurity innovations.
Rounding out the evening was a Highly Commended recognition from the Telegraph for “Best Use of Cloud Services.” The scale and speed of cloud adoption over the last number of years has caused an exponential growth in complex security challenges. Rapid7 showcased how their team in Belfast partnered with global colleagues to create an innovative and multi-faceted solution to manage Cloud Identity Risk across three major Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) — AWS, Azure and GCP. Their work has created a positive impact on Rapid7 customers by enabling secure cloud adoption faster than ever before.
Rapid7 is a company that is firmly rooted in their company values. Employees are encouraged to challenge conventional ways of thinking, work together to create impact, be advocates for customers, bring their authentic selves and experiences to the table, and embrace the spirit of continuous learning and growth. The work represented in these awards is a testament to the incredible opportunities and experiences that are possible when these values are clearly modeled, celebrated and practiced in pursuit of a shared mission — creating a safer digital future for all.
For more information about working at Rapid7, check out rapid7.careers.com
For more information on the Belfast Telegraph IT Awards and other winners, click here.
